José Apolinário wants to «join wills, work together, involving everyone, always aiming to reach regionalization, ahead», as chairman of the Algarve's Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), a position for which was elected yesterday.
The future president of this entity and its two vice-presidents, the socialist and equally elected José Pacheco and the social democrat Elsa Cordeiro, who will still be appointed by the government, presented a joint written statement this morning and spoke with journalists in a press conference that took place at the Centro Ciência Viva do Algarve Professor Mariano Gago, in Faro.
"We are ready to consolidate the step towards the reform of the State and create conditions to relaunch the process of regionalization," said José Apolinário.
This vision stems, to a large extent, from the meetings that the team led by the Secretary of State for Fisheries, until recently, held with the mayors of the 16 municipalities in the region.
"From these meetings, a feeling emerged that it is necessary to take this opportunity to take steps towards the reform of the State and to reopen, later on, the dossier of regionalization", he reinforced.
"And it is in this sense and in this line that we are going to work: assuming the competences of the CCDR in terms of political coordination and regional development, assuming dialogue and concertation with local authorities, cooperation between the different entities that represent the State in the region and giving safe and considered steps to strengthen the role of the regions», described José Apolinário.
The former mayor of Faro he even considers that the Algarve «has conditions to be almost a laboratory for the transfer of other services and for a greater concentration of powers in the CCDR».
Greater operationalization of the competences that CCDR Algarve already has at the level of regional coordination are other flags of the future management team of this entity.
In addition to “strong consultation with the local authorities”, another objective assumed is “to stimulate cooperation between the services that represent the State in the region, and coordination, when necessary”.
"As explained in this joint document, we want to further enhance the component of inter-service cooperation, of regional council meetings, where these bodies representing the State, Algarve Tourism and the university, as well as business and social associations are present", he explained the newly elected president of the Algarve CCDR.
“We have also chosen three areas where we believe that our work of cooperation and coordination can be more useful, which are the implementation of measures to support companies and workers, the issue of water and water resources and the implementation of the Recovery Plan and Resilience in the Algarve region», revealed, on the other hand, José Apolinário.
This plan could be used to reduce asymmetries between the interior and the coast in the Algarve region, a theme that was recurrent in meetings held with mayors of municipalities located in disadvantaged areas.
“There is a feeling, in many parts of the Algarve, that there is no harmonious development within the region itself. And there is a feeling that the interior and the most underprivileged areas should be looked at in a regional way, in themes such as land use planning, investments and settlement of people and support for companies», he said.
In meetings with mayors in the interior, one of the things that was always talked about “was the issue of Internet access. The mayors think that the fact that there is no access to the network is a way of alienating companies and people».
Thus, measures to combat desertification may involve promoting access to the digital, but also “fiscal issues”, among others.
«Right now, the Government is, together with the CCDR and the Intermunicipal Community, preparing the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Then, we will have the multiannual funds for 2021/27, which also have to be agreed and articulated», concluded José Apolinário.
Photos: Flavio Costa | Sul Informação
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